atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 05.2020

atw Vol. 65 (2020) | Issue 5 ı May
296
NEWS
All approved design documentation
is available to regulator Stuk, but
does not require Stuk’s approval. The
preliminary safety assessment, which
is a condition for the construction
licence, is a separate documentation
package, and must be submitted to
Stuk for approval.
The documents are part of the basic
design review for the plant, which
takes place in two stages. In the first
stage, Fennovoima evaluates the safety
of the plant, availability and main tenance
aspects. At this stage, Fennovoima
only issues conditional approvals
for the documentation, meaning there
are no technical obstacles in the design
documentation that would prevent its
final approval at a later stage.
Fennovoima did not say how many
documents it is still waiting for from
Raos Project Oy or when the preliminary
safety assessment would be
ready. Statistics in the company’s 2019
annual report, published on 25 March,
suggested that as of 15 January 2020
almost 50 % of the documents had
been submitted.
Project engineering director Petri
Jyrälä said once the first review stage is
complete, the documents will already
clearly determine what the physical
plant will look like. “We do not expect
to see any major modifications of the
plant after that stage, and we can proceed
to finalising the documentation,”
he said.
Preparatory construction work on
the Hanhikivi headland has reached a
point where “we are ready for the construction
of the nuclear power plant as
soon as the construction licence is
granted”, the report said. However,
before beginning the construction of
the plant, some 700,000 cubic metres of
rock must be extracted from the excavation
pit and the levelling concrete for
the plant foundation must be poured.
The plant’s projected startup date
has been pushed back to 2028, four
years behind the original schedule
and eight years later than the proposed
start when Finland’s government
approved the project in 2010.
Fennovoima, a consortium of
Finnish industrial and energy companies,
had warned in 2017 of
potential delays. The aim is to receive
the construction licence and to start
construction in 2021.
Hanhkivi-1 will be a 1,200-MW
VVER pressurised water reactor. The
reference plant for the unit Leningrad
2 in Sosnovy Bor, Russia.
According to Fennovoima’s website,
the total investment cost for
Hanhikivi-1 will be between € 6.5 and
€ 7 bn, which includes initial plant
costs, financing and waste management.
This estimate has remained the
same since spring 2014, when the
original investment decision was
made, Fennovoima said.
| www.fennovoima.fi (201121516)
Company News
Framatome earns high safety
marks from US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
(framatome) Framatome’s fuel manufacturing
facility in Richland,
Washington, received a positive report
from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) following its recent biennial
license performance review
(LPR). The NRC concluded that no program
areas require improvement – an
accomplishment the site has achieved
for seven con secutive reviews.
“We hold our manufacturing facilities
around the world to the highest
standards of excellence for safety, quality,
performance and delivery,” said
Lionel Gaiffe, senior executive vice
president, Framatome Fuel Business
Unit. “This outstanding report by the
NRC is recognition of our commitment
to continuous improvement.”
The NRC review takes place every
two years, and examines four major
categories for fuel manufacturing:
Safety Operations, Radiological Controls,
Facility Support and Other
Areas. This latest review confirmed
that the Richland facility continues to
conduct activities safely and securely,
while protecting public health and
the environment during the 2018-19
review period.
“Our workforce manufactures the
most advanced nuclear fuel designs
with an uncompromising focus on
safety and operational excellence,”
said Ron Land, Richland site manager
at Framatome. “This review confirms
our commitment to our customers and
our community.”
In 2019, Framatome’s Richland
facility celebrated its 50th anniversary.
After receiving the industry’s
first 40-year nuclear fuel fabrication
license renewal from the NRC in
2009, Framatome’s Richland facility is
licensed to operate to 2049.
| www.framatome.com (201121444)
Decommissioning of the GNS
plant in Duisburg-Wanheim is
completed
(gns) On 31 March 2020, GNS
Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH
vacated its former premises in
Duisburg- Wanheim, returned the
buildings and the premises to the
lessor and thus terminated its activities
at the site after 35 years. Since 1985,
GNS had been processing low to intermediate-level
radioactive waste from
the operation and decommissioning of
German nuclear power plants in three
rented halls of the former Thyssen precision
forge and packing it for subsequent
interim storage or final disposal.
In the course of the decommissioning,
all facilities and installations
for waste treatment and packaging
were completely removed by GNS and,
with the involvement of independent
experts, the freedom from contamination
of the entire site was demonstrated
to the supervisory authority.
This was the prerequisite for GNS to
return the radiation pro tection handling
permit required for operation by
then as early as mid-March. Thus, the
site can be put to conventional use
again in the future.
The employees who were last
employed at the Duisburg plant will in
future be deployed at other GNS
locations.
Background
In Duisburg-Wanheim, GNS has
operated a facility for the packaging
of low- to intermediate-level radioactive
waste from the operation and
decommissioning of German nuclear
power plants since 1985. For this
purpose, the waste was generally
compacted, dried and packed in containers
suitable for interim storage
and final disposal. With the gradual
shutdown of the German nuclear
power plants, the amount of operational
waste as processed at the
Duisburg facility of GNS is decreasing.
At the same time, new capacities for
processing local decommissioning
waste have been created at the
power plant sites. Therefore, GNS already
announced the decision to close
the Duisburg plant in December 2013.
| www.gns.de (201121405)
ROSATOM presents
new type of SMR
(rosatom) ROSATOM participated in
Africa Energy Indaba Forum, which
was hosted in Cape Town, South
Africa. Ryan Collyer, acting CEO of
Rosatom Central and Southern Africa
highlighted the global shift towards
nuclear, not only in the energy sector
but also to address a myriad of other
issues.
His speech was focused on the
possible use of nuclear technologies
News